Mountaintop reservoir will boost Pats Peak snowmaking

Pats Peak is planning to build a 21 million gallon reservoir atop Craney Hill this summer as part of a major expansion in its snowmaking operations.

The company says the reservoir, along with more electrical capacity and an increase in snowmaking guns, will “cut in half the time it takes to bring the mountain to 100% terrain open.”

Despite this season’s cold and snowy winter, snowmaking has become one of the biggest requirements for modern ski resorts as natural snowfall has become more erratic.

The reservoir will be built behind the main mountaintop collection point for skiers, where its three biggest chairlifts meet. Holding enough water to fill more than 30 Olympic swimming pools, it will more than triple the current 6 million gallons of water storage at the resort. 

Along with the new reservoir, which will be used “exclusively for snowmaking,” the resort said it would eventually raise pumping capacity to 8,000 gallons per minute. A new 34 kVA electrical line will be run to the summit to power the pumps and new snowmaking guns.

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